This presentation examines young people’s accounts of their own experience of moving between a culturally different home and a culturally dominant school. The analysis draws on interview data from studies with young people in English schools, examining accounts where differences between home and school practices were stressed. Two types of differences will be examined. One is differences related to “what is taught at school and at home” (e.g. mathematical practices) and the other is differences related to “what roles are accepted at school and at home”. These accounts will be analyzed in relation to socio-cultural representations, their construction of identities, and how they recount the impact on the young person’s participation in school practices. The aim of bringing the analysis of these two dimensions together is to illustrate that whether the focus is on a traditional cognitive activity (mathematical learning) or on social development of the young person (normative age role), the experience of the young person is constructed in relation to socio-cultural representations, and has impact on how they made sense of themselves (construct their identities)